Pessimistic futuristic story about climate change. Well written, and engaging. Especially fascinated to the state of poverty the characters were reduced to and how they survived - touching on a Knut Hamsun style of living. Plot: Londoners move to Nigeria to flee the frozen summer. The book is split into three parts; one in London as the journalists discuss the pros and cons of a possible freeze, whether to invest in fuel companies, whether the scientists are exaggerating, how the snow fell in November and as spring approached there was no sign of any thaw. Part two where two of the Londoners had moved to Africa, but found they had no money, forced to live in poverty and encountered racism and hardship whilst slowly trying to rebuild their lives. Part three is a return to London as a journalist reporting current conditions, only to find a reduced population, and a few people in power resorting to military means to protect their areas. ( )

review of
John Christopher's The Long Winter
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - March 12, 2022

I've read 6 Christopher novels before this one. Somehow, he's managed to not become one of my favorite writers, there's something just a tad too conventional about the bks. Still, I enjoy them & I enjoyed this one, possibly, the most of all. Most of the other ones are targetted at YA readers & since I'm an OM reader the YA aspect doesn't appeal to me so much. The Long Winter is probably the most 'adult' one I've read yet. 'Adult' novels probably appeal to me the most but, then again, they're plenty of things about being an 'adult' that I cd do w/o.

""There's nothing wrong—nothing basically. He's meeting . . . a woman."

"With surprise, Andrew asked, "Did he tell you that?"

""No. He doesn't, at this stage. I've never been sure whether it's because he genuinely thinks he's deceiving me or just because he finds it embarrassing to talk about."" - p 20

See what I mean by 'adult'? 2 married people are talking about the husband of one having an 'affair'. I've never been married, I've avoided it. As much as I'd like to revel in romantic monogamy, it's never going to be 'perfect'. Even if the couple live 'happily ever after' one of them will die 1st & then what? I have little or no wisdom on the subject of happy mating, nonetheless, I still strive for it. That can be taken as either that I'm still alive or that I'm a fool or neither/or.

Essentially, this bk is about the weather becoming colder & of the consequences for humanity in general & some specific characters & their personal dramas in particular. Just the other day I made a new feature-length movie 'about the weather', featuring heavy snow in particular: "simplicity itself" (on my onesownthoughts YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/fFBrQn5MAjg; on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/simplicity-itself ). Putting this movie on the screen nearest you while you read The Long Winter wdn't be a bad idea.

"The weather broke in mid-October, and the Fratellini hypothesis came back into the headlines, swept there by the blizzards that ranged over North America and continued unchecked across the Atlantic to Europe. In London, the first morning, there were three inches of snow, soon churned into mud and slush by the rush-hour traffic, but augmented, as the leaden morning wore on, by fresh falls. The wind was cold, from the northeast. Before midday, the evening papers were talking of Fratellini's Winter. The following morning, with snow still coming down, there was fuller coverage and more speculation. McKay called Andrew into his office where, Andrew observed, the large print of the Utrillo snow scene in Montmartre had been replaced by a Renoir of a girl in the long summer grass. McKay valued art for its thermal effects." - p 22

I find that last sentence particularly inspiring.

As it turns out, the afore-mentioned husband having an affair is having it w/ the other husband's wife. The initiator of the affair is a classic self-justifier, the type of person who always makes their behavior seem rational instead of selfish.

""A human being isn't a possession. We're all free agents, Andy. I'm as much against rape as anyone."

""They voluntarily make contracts. They incur responsibilities."

""You take people too seriously."

""You think that's a bad thing?"

''It depends how you look at them, I suppose. When it was a matter of immortal souls, and the risk of an eternal sizzle, one had to take oneself seriously. Aspects have changed."

""Aspects aren't standards."

""They affect them. And the moment you stop believing in the Jealous God and the Laws of Moses, you lose sight of land. After that it's every man his own navigator.["]" - p 34

It's snowing as I write this.

"There was a blizzard early in November and, while the snow still lay unthawed in gutters and gardens, another, fiercer and colder. Later the snow was gentler, less urgent, but more persistent. Toward the end of the month there was a fall which lasted, with very little intermission, for forty-eight hours. The temperature fell below zero and stayed there." - p 39

"Andrew said, "What about the Zoo animals?"

""They killed them off the day before things were closed down. They brought the carcasses of everything that was edible into the Pale." ""Who decided what was edible?"

"Chisholm laughed. "That's a point, isn't it? Standards are changing fast just now. I suppose there will be a few chewing rattlesnake and porcupine—raw as like as not."

"His brash insensitivity was probably enviable. In any case, for the job he was doing it was essential. Andrew saw one of the photographers focus on a body that lay huddled in the gutter and swing the camera round to hold it as they drove past. It was the luxuries of illusion and self-deception that were enviable—there had never been a sensitive butcher, and very few vegetarians who did not wear leather shoes. Enviable, and lost forever." - p 58

Of course, I prefer imagining the animals set free from all the zoos in the effected areas. How many wd survive? Wd the ones from southern climes immediately start heading south? This is a better time than most to link to my zoo movie: "ooZ(e)" - shot at the London Zoo in the spring of 1984 & at the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium on April 1, 2021 (on my onesownthoughts YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/YiQ4mwV7xSY; on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/ooze_20210413 ).

Andrew & the 2 women emigrate to Africa to escape the largely food & heat deprived north. Given that they're white & the history of how white colonists had treated the blacks they imposed themselves on & given how refugees are generally treated this didn't turn out so great.

"["]The porter at my block of flats had a medical practice in Vienna."

""I hadn't realized it was as bad as that."

""There's one profession that's still open. You had a commisssion in Tanks. You could help them train for the war."

""What war?"

""Against South Africa. As far as I can see, it's expected to break out in two or three years' time. You might get a commission. They allow white officers up to the rank of captain, on short-service commissions."" - p 73

This bk is copyrighted 1962. For those of you fortunate enuf to miss one of the most egregiously racist eras of modern times consider the following:

"Apartheid (“apartness” in the language of Afrikaans) was a system of legislation that upheld segregationist policies against non-white citizens of South Africa. After the National Party gained power in South Africa in 1948, its all-white government immediately began enforcing existing policies of racial segregation. Under apartheid, nonwhite South Africans (a majority of the population) would be forced to live in separate areas from whites and use separate public facilities. Contact between the two groups would be limited. Despite strong and consistent opposition to apartheid within and outside of South Africa, its laws remained in effect for the better part of 50 years."

[..]

"In 1960, at the black township of Sharpesville, the police opened fire on a group of unarmed blacks associated with the Pan-African Congress (PAC), an offshoot of the ANC. The group had arrived at the police station without passes, inviting arrest as an act of resistance. At least 67 blacks were killed and more than 180 wounded. Sharpesville convinced many anti-apartheid leaders that they could not achieve their objectives by peaceful means, and both the PAC and ANC established military wings, neither of which ever posed a serious military threat to the state. By 1961, most resistance leaders had been captured and sentenced to long prison terms or executed."

- https://www.history.com/topics/africa/apartheid#:~:text=De Klerk freed Nelson Mandela,end of the apartheid system.

That brings us to the time of the novel. Things got even worse before apartheid was finally ended. From the same history.com webpage:

"In 1976, when thousands of black children in Soweto, a black township outside Johannesburg, demonstrated against the Afrikaans language requirement for black African students, the police opened fire with tear gas and bullets. The protests and government crackdowns that followed, combined with a national economic recession, drew more international attention to South Africa and shattered all illusions that apartheid had brought peace or prosperity to the nation."

For a considerably more compellingly explicit presentation of that era I suggest a movie called A Dry White Season (1989), made a few yrs before apartheid was put out of its misery.

Andrew & Madeleine don't fare well in Africa b/c the government doesn't allow their money in the country. They're essentially forced to live in a slum home.

""You got a fine house," the mammy repeated. "Come on over here."

"They followed her to a position close by the table which served for a kitchen. Squatting down, she pulled up a loose board and pointed to the space beneath it.

""You don't have to carry no slops outside," the mammy said. "Times, that's a real help."" - p 100

Nothing like plumbing. Imagine yrself w/o it, maybe you've actually gone w/o it already in yr life. I admit to having the bourgeois preference of running water in my home. Then again, having unpolluted water outside it is nice too.

I'm always on the lookout for Cockney Rhyming Slang, LOOK! I spotted some over there!

""Hope you can flogging well swim, china," Carlow said." - p 135

China plate rhymes w/ mate.

Andrew's journey takes him back to Not-So-Great-Anymore Britain w/ mostly the company of black Africans essentially seeking to colonize what's left of England. They get stranded on an island off the English coast where a "Governor" has managed to impose himself on a surviving population. Old-timey racism prevails.

"Abonitu said to the others. "Stay here. We'll be back in the morning." he went to the stores and brought out two pound tins of coffee. "Hope you'll accept these, Your Excellency," he said gravely.

""Take the coffee from Sambo, Colonel," the Governor said. "Coffee after dinner tonight. Take you back to old times, eh?" He laughed. "You can come and have a sniff at my cup."" - p 143

The "Governor"'s rise to power is explained to his captives.

""But the Governor—he's not had military experience? Not as an officer, anyway?"

"The Colonel hesitated. "Not prior to the Fratellini Winter."

""What did he do before that?"

"The hesitation this time was even more protracted. He had been a commanding figure once, Andrew saw, but he was thin and stooped and wore spectacles from whose rims some of the tortoiseshell casing had stripped away. He said at last, his voice clipped. "He was in my employ. A gardener and handyman." He looked at Andrew bleakly. "The connection has been a useful one to me, as you can see."" - p 144

Wweeelllllll, plenty more happens in this & a good time is definitely not had by all but it's time for us all to be tucked into bed. Let it be sd that Christopher takes a pretty insightful & multi-layered look at what might happen to an empire & its beneficiaries if the weather were to change a bit. ( )

In the light of current concerns about the effect on society of a warming climate, it is interesting to read a novel based on the opposite: the collapse of European civilization after a decline in solar radiation and the consequent return of Arctic conditions to Europe, leaving Africa and other southern regions in the ascendancy. This edition comes with a careful introduction for the younger contemporary reader, setting the book's attitude to race relations in the original context of the early 1960s. The plot involves a love triangle as well as the purely SF element, the later being somewhat reminiscent of The Day of the Triffids. I enjoyed it. MB 19-xi-2021 ( )

I found this re-release of this SF-novel a few weeks ago, during the sales of an English bookshop in Brussels, Belgium. In other words, were it not priced lower, I probably would not have bought it, or not immediately.

The premise looked interesting: climate-fiction (cli-fi) in vein of e.g. [a:Kim Stanley Robinson|1858|Kim Stanley Robinson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1376955089p2/1858.jpg] and others. See, for example, his Science in the Capital trilogy. Winter is extending its tentacles in northern Europe and America. As hell freezes over, because the sun is giving off less and less heat, entire populations (incl. politicians) are forced to move out of their countries and seek warmer shelter in the south, like Africa and South America. Asia seems to be of no concern in this book, or I must have overlooked it.

Beware: spoilers! I'll just hide the next blocks of text.

The focus lies on two couples which have one thing in common: cheating partners. Then again, women are considered products, submissive and such. In other words, the classic "women fall for macho types". And so, at some point, they indeed switch partners. And new love is established. But anyway, the move to Africa then. White people try to settle there, find jobs, etc. There is racism, of course. The book was written in the 1960's. Black people and white people don't like each other; racism is alive in Europe as it is alive in Africa. White people take on jobs, for which, in Europe, black people would be hired: waiter, driver/chauffeur, ... all those little jobs which require not much schooling or critical thinking. You could fault the book or the author for the racist input, but racism is still alive, everywhere in the world - it doesn't mean one must approve of it, of course -, although there has been and still is more resistance and opposition.

Andrew Leedon, a journalist, and his new-found love Madeleine (David's former partner) have fled to Africa, Nigeria. Of course, as all is frozen up north, this also affects financial actions and trade. Sterling is not accepted, so they can't access the money that was sent to them, and have to survive on the limited sum they could bring with them. As a result, they can't do otherwise but rent a very cheap house in the slums. Tightly packed groups of people, an unrelenting heat, not much security, a lack of basic comfort and infrastructure, and so on. Totally inhuman conditions to live in.

Both do manage to find jobs, albeit badly paid, and have to save a lot to be able to afford something. Carol, Andrew's cheating wife, also fled to Africa, found a job (social secretary - prostitution? - for a wealthy African businessman) and so managed to get their sons to go to a very decent school; the studies being paid by her new, African "owner" (by lack of a better term). She and Andrew do write to each other, although not very often.

But then, the tide turns and Andrew and Madeleine can improve their social standards and situation. More income, better housing, etc., since Andrew was accepted as camera-man for a documentary about the Nigerian army going up north to investigate the frozen situation in England, and maybe even conquer the country, little by little.

David stayed in England, while his ex and others moved to Africa. It turns out later that he took control of one gang of survivors. Of course, all they had were stocks of food and beverages. England is so frozen that nothing new can grow. No agriculture, no cattle, nothing. All supplies have stopped: electricity, fuel, and more. Which reminded me of [a:Andreas Eschbach|40381|Andreas Eschbach|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1200336594p2/40381.jpg]'s [b:Ausgebrannt|1435541|Ausgebrannt|Andreas Eschbach|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1183572530s/1435541.jpg|1426096] (Burnt out); see my review here. So one has to rely on paraffin lamps, for example.

The Nigerians are confronted with proper resistance, within (over leadership and taking the right decisions on their journey towards England) and without (David's crew).

In the end, Andrew again chooses his own side, for one reason of another (Madeleine? Her being pregnant? Him thinking it's his? Or just because he indeed feels more at home in his home country?). Racism? White over black? Each rooting for his own colour? Given the circumstances, it's understandable. Not always something to approve of, but from e.g. an anthropological point of view understandable.

I found this book reasonably good. It shows how white supremacy has its version in Africa (and elsewhere). The story follows mainly white people seeking a new future in Africa, which has its own laws, its own culture(s), its own norms and values, ... Some of those agree with western values, others differ, and vice versa. The author should indeed have focused more on how people try to survive in a frozen world, what the consequences are for nature (fauna and flora), and so on. I agree on that point with Jason, who was less positive about the book.

The story also shows - if you read between the lines -, or should show, that the West is not always the best in everything, that our progress, our industries, ... must indeed take more and more care of the environment. We (generally speaking) do not always treat others/immigrants/strangers with sympathy or empathy, for various reasons and influenced by various parameters. Considering the recent refugee crisis, what if the West was indeed suffering from a severe winter (or a very long and hot summer) that would have such an impact, and was to move to warmer (or more temperate) countries? Has this been considered?

Long story short - and I don't even know why I wrote so many words about such a short book -, a story with flaws, but one that does make you think about the environment, immigration (under severe climate or other conditions), and so on. ( )

This is only the second book of his I've read (the first was No Blade of Grass), and again I'm impressed with how well constructed the story is. He gives a little bit of background on his characters under relatively normal circumstances then drops the end of the world on them, and you believe them in that situation because he made them real from the start. There is some interesting--and pointed--racial role reversal in the midsection when everyone escapes to Africa, but it's part of the story, not an agenda. The last part of the book reads almost like a sea-faring adventure, and his descriptions of his ravaged homeland are haunting and sad. The ending struck me as a little too neat, but it's a page turner in the best sense, and I left the book wishing it was longer. He seems to have fallen into neglect as a writer, as evidenced by the rarity and expense of decent copies of his books, and he definitely deserves a wider audience. One of the better post-apocalypse books I've read, and I thought the same about No Blade of Grass. ( )